Hicks: 'Avatar' slates 3 sequels

More than 13 months after Sigourney Weaver revealed James Cameron was planning to make three "Avatar" sequels instead of two, the news became official on Thursday, according to the Huffington Post. Cameron will cowrite the three sequels simultaneously with four different screenwriters.

According to Variety, Cameron will collaborate with Josh Friedman ("War of the Worlds"), Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver ("Rise of the Planets of the Apes"), and Shane Salerno ("Savages") on the screenplays for "Avatar 2," "Avatar 3" and "Avatar 4." Twentieth Century Fox will release the movies from 2016 through 2018, each time likely in December.

In this film publicity image released by 20th Century Fox, the character Neytiri, voiced by Zoe Saldana, left, and the character Jake, voiced by Sam Worthington are shown in a scene from, "Avatar." (AP Photo/20th Century Fox)

Cameron told MTV that his idea for "Avatar 4" was a prequel.

"I haven't really put pen to paper on it, but basically it goes back to the early expeditions of Pandora, and kind of what went wrong with the humans and the Na'vi and what that was like to be an explorer and living in that world," Cameron said in Sept. of 2012. "We'll start, not imitating 'Star Wars, but it's a logical thing to do because we'll have completed the thematic arc by the end of three."